‘Oh. Well, I have a goodexcuse.’
‘You do?’ He asks, curious, despitehimself.
‘Yeah. Yeah I do. I wasarrested!’
Seth’s eyes go all round. ‘That’s a pretty good excuse. I guess theycaughtyou!’
‘Wait… you know about the whole New York menacething?’
Seth starts laughing, his eyes crinkling behind his glasses. ‘We get sent the papers every week to use for our sketches. I saw all the articles yesterday morning. I was gonna show you last night, help you come up with an escapeplan,but—’
‘They caught me. And, for your information, I wasnotmasturbating inGramercyPark.’
‘Shame.’
My body goes instantly hot. I get a vision of Seth in theAtonementlibrary. I try my very best to actnormal.
‘I did steal a key, though.’ I say coolly. ‘And they found Phyllis’s joint in mysatchel.’
‘And now you’ve missed yourflight.’
A ghost of a smile flits acrosshisface.
‘Yep.’ I take a deep breath. ‘I’ve decided to stay for a few more days. They guy at the bank turned out to be the wrongChuck.’
‘Another Chuck? That’scrazy.’
‘I know. I lost my shit. I confessed that I wasn’t really a billionaire looking to invest and they made a barricade and wouldn’t let me leave. It was not cool. Anyway, I’m still hunting the real Chuck down. And I came here to ask you for your help withsomething.’
Seth looks up at the giant ornate clock on thelobbywall.
He smiles at me, all formality gone. ‘Are you free for lunch now? We’d have to eat it in myoffice,but…’
‘Yes!’ I almost shout. ‘Yes,’ I repeat at a more reasonablevolume.
Seth leads me across the enormous lobby, grabbing me a guest pass from thereceptiondesk.
‘I thought you’d stood me up.’ He laughs as we head over to the lifts. ‘I’m sorry you were arrested but, as excuses go, that’s a prettystellarone.’
The lift door opens and we step in. A large group of tourists shuffle in behind, squeezing us all up against each other likesardines.
Seth does a loud spluttery cough. ‘Three days of this virus and no sign of it going anywhere!’ Then he gives a huge, fake cough and then a really over the top fake sneeze. ‘And a rash too! It itches! Itburns!’
The cluster of tourists give Seth a horrified glance before hurrying right back out of the elevator and into the lobby. One even covers their nose and mouth in an effort to avoid his ‘germs’.
I can’t help but laugh as the lift doors close and Seth gives the tourists a friendlygoodbyewave.
Now it’s just me and him here inthelift.
Alone.
Seth takes a steptowardsme.
‘Fuck, I’m really glad to see you again,’ he says, his voice so low I can barelyhearhim.
And before I can respond that I’m glad to see him again too, he’s kissing me, his hands lacing up into my hair, his nose pressing against mine, my hand under his T-shirt running across the smooth hot skin of his broadupperback.
I don’t have much experience of kissing, but with Seth, it feels like I’m doing it exactly right. Like I’m an expert kisser. Like if there were an annual convention of kissing, I would be appearing on a panel of some sort to instruct other people how to do it thisperfectly.
